."Hunting Dogs at the Kennel, 1901"
Jules-Bertrand Gélibert (1834-1916)
24 x 19 (frame) inches
Jules-Bertrand Gélibert was a student at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. His first exhibit was a sculpture-already an animalier portraitist-of Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte’s (the Prince Imperial) favorite dog named "Druid. (Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became Napoleon III in 1852). Described as an immensely sensitive and rare portrait, still today bronze examples of Napoleon’s dog Druid are highly sought after by collectors.
Jules Bertrand Gélibert is remembered above all else as a well-known painter of hunting scenes and hunting dogs. His workshop was in Montmartre in Paris at 17 boulevard Pigalle. In 1861 he was given an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1865 he lived and studied with Louis-Godefroy Janin, the great painter specializing in dogs (see "A Fine Gourment!" elsewhere on this site for a painting by Louis-Godefroy Janin).https://www.ksgfineartgallery.com/product-page/dog-portrait-a-fine-gourmet-dated-1855-louis-godefroy-jadin-1805-1882
We know that he also painted with his brother Gaston and when Jules was painting animals, Gaston was painting landscapes. Among his famous hunting pictures, in 1875 a "Hallali of deer in the ponds of Belle Croix" in the forest of Fontainebleau is noticed for its exceptional character. Critics admired "the vigor of design and color, of movement and keenness of observation." At the Universal Exhibition of 1889 and that of 1900, he was given bronze medals. A great lover of hound hunting, he followed several hunts, the Rallye Sivry in Fontainebleau, and the Bois Boudran team with Count Greffulhe as well as the hunts of the Baron de Lassus.
In 1889 he decorated the walls of the Saint-Nicolas church with monumental paintings, now included in the General Inventory of French Heritage with his brother Gaston continuing the work from 1895.
On the initiative of the Société Centrale Canine chaired by the Prince of Wagram, the Salon of hunting and Hunting Painters and Sculptors was founded in 1890 which was chaired by Jules-Bertrand Gélibert himself. It was held from 1890 to 1912 in the Orangery of the Jardin des Tuileries.
He was elevated to the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1905. A street in Capbreton is named rue des Frères Gélibert.
The paintings of Jules-Bertrand Gélibert are today in many museums in New York, London, Paris (Musée d'Orsay), Bagnères, Cambrai, Saint-Etienne and Tarbes. His work can also be found in many castles in France (at the Murat, Wagram, Carayon-Latour, etc.
Sources: Benezit dictionary, the Grand universal dictionary of the 19th century by Mr. Pierre Larousse, the animalartparis website